How the former CEO of Campbell Soup used a skill taught in kindergarten to motivate his entire company

Doug
Conant, former President and CEO of Campbell Soup Company,
learned how crucial gratitude can be.Joe Skipper / REUTERS

In 2009, Doug Conant, then the CEO of the Campbell Soup Company,
was in a serious car accident.

While he was recovering in the hospital, he received get-well
notes from employees across the globe; his wife sat with him and
read them aloud.

While it's possible these missive writers were merely kissing up,
it's more likely they were genuinely motivated to reciprocate the
care and kindness Conant had showed them years earlier.

The anecdote above was included in "The
Gratitude Diaries," in which journalist Janice Kaplan
chronicles her yearlong effort to learn about the effects of
gratitude and
display more of it in her
own life. Kaplan cites Conant's behavior as an example of a
leader who harnessed the power of recognition to boost his team's
performance.

See, throughout his tenure at the company, Conant sent more than
30,000 handwritten thank-you notes to staffers and clients. (In a
2011 Harvard
Business Review article, Conant explained that he sent
handwritten notes because more than half of Campbell Soup
associates didn't use a computer.)

While Kaplan is quick to note that the thank-you notes probably
weren't the sole reason Campbell Soup's performance improved
under Conant's leadership, she says the notes were one part of
creating a company-wide culture of gratitude.

Still, it's worth mentioning that when Conant took the reins
at Campbell Soup, the stock price was falling and it was the
worst performer of all the major food companies in the world,
according to
Fast Company. By 2009, the company was ahead of the S&P
Food Group and the S&P 500, Fast Company reported.

When Kaplan visited the Business Insider office in August, she
said that a
survey she conducted with the John Templeton Foundation found
that about 90% of people said a grateful boss was more likely to
be successful.

"Nobody succeeds on his or her own," she added.

In the last few years, more and more leaders have started to
adopt this practice, including Mark Zuckerberg, who in 2014
challenged himself to write one thank-you note every day,
according to
The Washington Post.

But not every leader has the time or resources to do the same.
Kaplan said there are myriad other ways to show appreciation for
your staff. For example, if someone's been up all night working
on a project for you, you can get them a cup of coffee and leave
it on their desk.

"You don't have to apologize that they worked," Kaplan said. "We
understand that that's sometimes part of the job. But recognizing
it, saying thank you, letting them know that it wasn't for naught
really can go a very far way."

Bottom line: Showing gratitude can motivate your team to work
harder, and you probably aren't showing enough right now.

Here's Kaplan:

"As I was researching this book, I heard over and over from
executives the line, 'Hey, we say thank you with a paycheck.'
Well, guess what? You don't say thank you with a paycheck. You
say I'm paying you with a paycheck. You say thank you with thank
you."